Covid-19 Hospitalizations in The U.S. Hit Pandemic All Time Low
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On Friday, the U.S. achieved a happy milestone in the battle against Covid-19 as 16,138 Americans were hospitalized with the virus – the lowest number since the beginning of the pandemic.
CNN noted that only “2% of hospital beds are currently in use for Covid-19 patients” and that the number of hospitalizations was “fewer than there have ever been since the US Department of Health and Human Services first started tracking in July 2020.”
Health experts warned, however, that the current low levels of hospitalizations do not mean that American hospitals are no longer under strain from the pandemic.
“I can’t hear that (data on Covid-19 hospitalizations) without shouting ‘hallelujah’ because the stress and strain of the last two years has been so enormous,” Nancy Foster, vice president for quality and patient safety policy at the American Hospital Association, told CNN. “But there are a number of things going on now that continue to make hospitals and their staff very busy.”
Foster argued that many Americans delayed care due to the pandemic and that an influx of those patients was likely to begin.
“But I think it is that combination of having more people needing care than we had anticipated and having more staffing issues than we had anticipated that is really the biggest challenge right now,” she added.
Other experts told CNN they are hopeful that Covic-19 is slowly becoming endemic. “From an endemic Covid monitoring perspective — at least that’s where we hope we’re heading — we need to be able to tell whether we’re in a state that requires public health measures,” Dr. Stephen Parodi, national infectious disease leader for Kaiser Permanente, told CNN.
